Apparatus for drying liquids.



E. M. JOHNSON & E. J. COLLINGS APPARATUS FOR DRYING LIQUKDS.

APPLICATION HLED OCTJ). I915.

Patented 0m. 3,1916.

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BY U9 ,4 TTORNEY.

WI TN ESSES:

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

EDWARD MEAD JOHNSON AND ERNEST J. COLLI-NGS. 0F JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY,

ASSIGNORS TO MEAD JOHNSON & CO., OE, JERSEY CITY. NEW JERSEY, A CORPO- RATION OF NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR DRYING LIQUIDS.

Original application filed March 8, 1915, Serial No. 12,858.

Specification of Letters Patent.

1915. Serial No. 54,990.

To all whom it may con s/"n Be it known that we. liuwaun hinan dormso.\ and linxes'r .l. (fouasos, citizens of the United States, residing at Jersey City, in Hudson county, in the State of New Jersey, have imcnted certain new and useful improvements in Apparatus for Dryni Liquids. of which the following is a specifiration.

This invention relates to apparatus for drying liquids of the 'type in which the liquid is dried while thinly spread upon a surface, and is a division of our application Serial Number 1" 8-78, filed March 8th, 1915.

The apparatus is particularly applicable to the drying of liquids containing solid matter in suspension or solution.

An object of the invention is to provide an apparatus adapted to dry highly adhesive solutions. especially those which are extremely adhesive when heated.

Furthermore, our new apparatus adapted to the drying of mixtures composed of solutions of different degrees of adhesiveness and to regulate the proportion of the different solutions so as to obtain the desired constitution of the dried product.

Our new drying apparatus consists fundamentally of means for spreading a film of a solution over the surface upon which the drying is to take place and means for applying upon this film a film of another solution.

An important use of our new apparatus is in the drying of syrups. syrup, for example, consists principally of two substances. dextrin and maltose in solution. The maltose is extremely adhesive when heated, while the dextrin is much less so. 1n former drying apparatuses it. has.

been customary to dry the malt sugar syrup by spreading a film of the mixture of dextrin and maltose in solution over a heated surface. This results in bringing a part of the heated maltose in contact with the heated surface, and its extreme adhesi eness makes it difficult to rem ve from. the heated surface after drying. It is, as a practical matter, impossible to remove the dried film when the ratio of the maltose to the dextrin in the solution is greater than :45. By means of our new apparatus a solution con- Malt sugar taining either pure dextrin or a high percentage of dextrin and a solution containing a high percentage of maltose are spread upon the heated surface separately and sueeessively. A lilm oi the high dextrin solution is first applied and over this a. film of the high maltose solution. The film high in doxlrin preu-nts the maltose from Coming in contact with the heated surlaee and in consemience the two films may easily be s raped ofi' when dried.

In order that our invention may he clearly understood, we shall proceed to describe the particular embodiment oi it which is illustrated in the accoin mnying drawing. It should be clearly understood, however, that our invention is by no means limited to the particular apparatus illustrated and described.

in the. accompanying drawing. Figure 1 is a cross-sectioiuil elevation of a device embodying our invention. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary section of a modified Form of the device.

In the form illustrated the drying apparatus is inclosed in an aiwtight easing l, to which is connected an vhaust pipe 13. This makes it possi le to conduct the drying in a vacuum. The use of a vacuum is, however, not essential to our invention and whether or not it is to be used in. connection with our inventon may be determined by practical considerations as to the. eost and rapidity of drying required and particularly by the nature of the solution to be dried.

The drying roller 2 is supported upon a horizontal axle, one end of which is hollow to permit the introduction of steam into the interior of the roller. Any convenient form of mechanism, notv shown, provided to r0- tate the roller in an anti-clockwise direction. This mechanism is such that the speed of rotation may be varied. Below the roller 2 are the rollers 3 and 4. These roliers are supported upon horizontal axles and are preferably capable of being steam heated like roller A very small clearance is allowed between these rollers and roller 2, that between roller 3 and roller 2 bein equal to the thickness of the film of the liquid to be dried, and that between roller 4 roller 2 in and roller 2 being equal to the thickness of tvvo films of solution. Rollers 3 and 4' are provided with mechanism (not shown) by which they can be rotated in clockwise direction. Surrounding the lower portions of the rollers 53 and l are the troughs 5 and (3, in which are placed the solutions to be dried. lnlet pipes T and 8 are provided to admit the solutions to the troughs J and 6, respectively. The troughs are also provided with outlet pipes SJ and it), which are used when the troughs are washed out. A knife 11 is provided to scrape the dried films from the roller 2. From the knife the dried product descends into the receptacle 12.

The operation of the apparatus illustrated in Fig. l is as follows :-Stean1 is admitted to the roller 2, and referably to rollers 3 and 4 also, to heat r iem. The solutions to be dried are introduced into the troughs 5 and 6 through pipes 7 and 8, the more adhesive solution being laced in trough 6. If, for example, the so ution to be dried is malt sugar syrup, the solution of dextrin or high in dextrin is admitted to trough 5, while the high maltose solution is run into trough 6. The rollers are then rotated, an anti-clockwise direction and rollers 3 and 4 in a clockwise direction. The peripheral velocity of roller 2 is preferably slightly greater than that of rollers 3-and 4, so that the film of solution carried up upon rollers 3 and 4 is drawn upon the surface of roller 2 as it passes over them.- By this arrangement, a film of the solution contained in trough 5 is first applied to roller 2 and then a film of the more adhesive solution in trough 6 is applied outside of this film. The

film of the more adhesive solutionis thus kept out of contactwith roller 2 and does not, therefore, stick to the rollerwhen dried. The two films are scraped from the roller 2 by the knife 11 and fall into the receptacle 12 in the form of a dry powder.

In the modification of the apparatus shown in Fig. 2, rollers 3 and 4 are placed at such a distance from the roller 2 that the film of solution upon them is not brought directly in contact with the roller 2. In this' modification, the rollers 3 and 4 are rotated at a sufficiently high velocity to throw the s lution upon them against the roller 2 by centrifugal force.

The axles of the rollers 3 and 4 may be so supported as to be vertically adjustable. In this case these rollers may be so adjusted as to operate either as shown in Fig. 1 or as in Fig. 2.

The apparatus may be used to dry a single highly adhesivsliquid which could not be dried on a heated roller by the-ordinary method. In this case the adhesive liquid is placed inthe trough land 01] or other suitable liquid of low adhesiveness is placed in the trough 5 to form a film which shall prevent the adhesive liquid from adhering to the roller 2.

An important use of the apparatus is to obtain a dry product which is composed of a mixture of the solid constituents of solutions of dill'crent adhesiveness. In this case as already explained, the more adhesive so lotion is placed inthe trough l5 and is thus prevented from coming in contact with the roller. F urthcrmore, the apparatus permits of the regulation of the proportion of the constituents of the different solutions which appear in the-dried product. This is done by regulating the thickness of'the films of the various solutions applied to the roller 2. Regulation may be accomplished in various ways. Thus, a thicker film of one solution may be produced by maintaining that solution at a higher-level in its trough by admitting the solution to the trough more rapidly. A thicker film of the solution may also be applied by rotating the roller which is applying the film more rapidly. This method is pechliarlyapplicable when the film is applied centrifugally, as shownin Fig. 2.

It is obvious that many modifications may be made in the apparatus described Without departing from our invention. Thus, the drying roller may itself dip into a trough ing devices or other means for applying films may be used equal to the number of liquids to be dried. Thus,any number of liquids may be dried and the solid constituents mixed in any desired proportion.

1. A drying apparatus comprising a drying roller and a plurality of rollers arranged to apply a plurality of films of liquid to said drying roller.

2. A drying apparatus comprising a drying roller and a plurality of rollers'arranged to throw a plurality of films of liquid upon said drying roller by centrifugal force.

3. A drying apparatus comprising a heated drying roller, a plurality of troughs containing liquids. and a. plurality of rollers in said troughs arranged to apply films of the liquids contained therein to said drying roller.

4. A drying apparatus comprising a drying roller, and means spaced apart around the periphery of said roller for applying films of liquid to said roller at spaced points 5. A drying apparatus comprising a dryapplying films of liquids at spaced points ing roller, means for applying a film of liqalong said surface.

uid to said roller, and means spaced apart In testimony whereof, we have hereunto from said first mentioned means for applyset our hands this '28 day of Sept, 1915. 5 ing a film of Liquid upon said first mentioned EDVARD MEAD JOHNSON.

film at a point spaced apart from the point ERNEST J. COLLINGS. at which said first mentioned film is applied VVit-n ess as to Edward Mead Johnson: to the roller. FRED L. ROY.

6. A drying apparatus comprising a mov- WVitness as to Ernest J. Collings:

10 ing drying surface and spaced means for WVM. JQMUENSTERMAN. 

